Praying to Make the Most of the Grieving Process. With his mother recently moving into hospice care (and went to glory yesterday), our friend Kevin Halloran writes “In times of grief, some turn away from God and lay the blame on Him for their troubles. This is exactly what I want to avoid. I am praying for God to use this time to irrigate my heart with the nourishing waters of His transforming truth so that I may know Him better and be more faithful and fruitful for Christ. In addition to praying for the Lord’s help and strength, here are five things I am praying for myself and my family.”

Hope for the Unhappy Christian. Phillip Holmes looks at the issue of contentment, a subject that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and plan to do some writing on.

When God is Silent. Nancy Guthrie writes “Our task isn’t to decipher exactly how all of life’s pieces fit and what they all mean, but to remain faithful and obedient to the God who knows all mysteries. This is the kind of faith that’s pleasing to God—a faith that’s determined to trust him when he hasn’t answered all the questions, when we haven’t heard any voice from the whirlwind.”

Knowing vs. Feeling in Worship. Watch this short video of Alistair Begg’s passionate message from a Ligonier conference in which he reminds us of the importance of knowledge in worship.

What Does it Mean to Fear God? C. Sproul writes “We need to make some important distinctions about the biblical meaning of “fearing” God. These distinctions can be helpful, but they can also be a little dangerous.”

Down with Moral Majority Thinking: The Case for a Truer Christianity. Scott Sauls writes that the vision of his church “is built around missional living:taking our Christianity to the places where we live, work, and play. In considering what public Christianity could look like in our context, the biblical metaphor that we seem to keep returning to is Jesus’ teaching on salt.”

Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Smartphone Usage. In an interview with Tony Reinke, Alistair Roberts states “These diagnostic questions are tests that we need to perform upon ourselves. We should beware of issuing general condemnations of devices or media more generally and of the communities that use them.”

How Can We Be Angry and Not Sin? I’m hearing that a lot of people are really angry about our country. Jon Bloom asks “So what does righteous anger look like in a Christian?”

Overcomplicating Accountability. Barnabas Piper writes “Accountability has become a formal word associated with groups and meetings and appointments. We’ve mistaken formality for intentionality. Accountability must be intentional or else it won’t happen. But when it becomes formal we usually stop being accountable. We’ve made it too complicated.”

Love Is the Main Thing in Saving Faith. John Piper writes “If you are a parent or a pastor or a small group leader, or a Christian who cares about helping anyone trust Christ and live by faith, what all this means is that your desire to help the people you serve will include a desire to help them love Christ. This does not mean do things for him. It feels things for him. It means treasure him above all else. Be satisfied in all that God is for us in him.”

The Shame Culture. David Brooks writes “The guilt culture could be harsh, but at least you could hate the sin and still love the sinner. The modern shame culture allegedly values inclusion and tolerance, but it can be strangely unmerciful to those who disagree and to those who don’t fit in.”

Hobbies to the Glory of God. Tim Challies writes “I believe God is pleased when we pursue hobbies. I also believe that we can confidently pursue them and do them for the glory of God even if there is no obviously redeeming value in them.”

Why Did They Hate Jesus? Kevin DeYoung writes “So as we approach another Holy Week, let’s certainly talk about the compassion and love of Jesus (how could we not!). But if we don’t talk about his unique identity as the Son of God, we have not explained the reason for his death, and we have not given people reason enough to worship.”

Jesus and His Active Obedience. In this excerpt from his teaching series What Did Jesus Do? C. Sproul explains what is meant by the active obedience of Jesus.

Tim Keller Sermons. This sermon, titled “The Centrality of the Gospel”, from Tim Keller, is the first from Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s current series “Where We are Going: The City and the Mission”. It’s a series focused on Redeemer’s gospel based core values and is part of a special season at Redeemer called “Rise”. During this season, the church will be making these video sermons available free.

Therefore, Go. Watch Tim Keesee’s messages at the recent 2016 Ligonier National Conference. This message inspired me to read his book Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World’s Difficult Places. See my review next week.

We’re Called to Make Disciples, Not Simply Converts. R.C. Sproul writes “The Great Commission is the call of Christ for His disciples to extend His authority over the whole world. We are to share the gospel with everyone so that more and more people might call Him Master.”

Salvation: A Sovereign Work of God. In this excerpt from a message at the 2010 Ligonier National Conference, John MacArthur considered Romans 9, the sovereignty of God in salvation, and man’s responsibility to have faith.

Does the Bible Have Errors?C. Sproul writes “The full trustworthiness of sacred Scripture must be defended in every generation, against every criticism.”

How to Recognize a Foolish Leader. Jon Bloom writes “Therefore, as a nation it is urgent that we seek to elect as wise, honest, humble, experienced, capable, decisive, and resolute a leader as is available to us. And we would be wise to elect a leader, if possible, who truly fears God, since he or she must have an internal moral resistance to the powerful temptations to evil that will come with wielding great power.”

The Theology of Donald Trump. Michael Horton writes “It is not that Trump has caused this transformation in portions of the so-called “evangelical electorate.” Rather, his candidacy has revealed the inner secularization of significant portions of the movement, which surveys have documented for some time now. Four theological words highlight the problem.”

Donald Trump’s Christian Soldiers. Ross Douthat writes “Despite his transparent irreligiosity, Trump has won easily across the South, one of the most religious portions of the country.”

4 Essentials for Finishing Well. The late Jerry Bridges writes “I have come to the conclusion that there are four fundamental actions we can take to help us finish well. There may be other issues that are important, but I believe these four are fundamental.”

Andy Stanley Explains His ‘Stinking Selfish’ Parents Comment. Christianity Today interviews Andy Stanley about his recent controversial statements about small churches. Stanley concludes with “I am sincerely sorry for what I said and how I said it. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to explain—but not excuse—myself. And I’m grateful to anyone who took the time to read this exchange.”

Headscarves and Hashtags. Tim Keesee writes “The pain is real, and our brothers and sisters who bear witness while walking through the fire could never relegate their Cross-bearer to a position of “honorable mention” in the same-God debate. Neither should we. Jesus won’t take second place, for he is the great King, lavishing mercy upon us sinners, giving life to all who come to him.

Does Same-Sex Attraction Disqualify Someone from Ministry? Dave Zuleger writes “This is not an us versus them issue, because there are people — God-fearing, Christ-exalting people — living with same-sex attraction in many of our churches. Is there a place for people with same-sex attraction in the church? How about in your church? Could there even be a place for same-sex attracted people to serve and lead in ministry?”

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I’m Bill Pence ~ married to my best friend for more than 39 years and a St. Louis Cardinals fan. Before retiring I served as a manager at a Fortune 50 company; I'm a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary and in leadership at my local church. I enjoy speaking about calling, vocation and work. I am a life-long learner and have a passion to help people develop to their fullest potential and to utilize their strengths more fully. I am an INTJ on Myers-Briggs, 3 on the Enneagram, my top five Strengthsfinders themes are: Belief, Responsibility, Learner, Harmony and Achiever, and my two StandOut strengths roles are Creator and Equalizer. My favorite book is the Bible, with Romans my favorite book and 2 Corinthians 5:21 my favorite verse. Some of my other favorite books are Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper, The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul, The Prodigal Son (originally titled A Tale of Two Sons) by John MacArthur and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I enjoy Christian hip-hop/rap music, with Lecrae, Trip Lee and Andy Mineo being some of favorite artists.